PassivSystems, the UK smart home technology firm, has called on businesses attending the Smart Energy Summit in Austin, Texas to ensure that consumer energy efficiency needs are at the top of the agenda during the summit, January 24-26. Smart meter roll-outs have been hit by controversy in California, Australia and Holland over the past 12 months. The UK plans to install smart meters in every home by 2020 at the latest, yet the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has stated smart meters will be able to reduce energy usage by just two to three per cent.
Speaking ahead of the summit, PassivSystems CEO Colin Calder said that the recent backlash against smart meters was primarily due to those smart meters being rolled out without due consideration of consumer needs.
“We’ve seen several examples of late where consumers have rejected smart meters and that’s not something that surprises me. Smart meters only facilitate more accurate billing and are a solution for utilities, not consumers. Even used in conjunction with an in-home energy monitor they offer only short-term value for consumers and short-term energy reduction.”
PassivSystems launched its home energy management solution PassivEnergy in 2010, a product that intuitively learns a household’s energy requirements to automate energy use in the home. It focuses on heating and hot water and can also integrate the management and monitoring of renewable energy on the same platform as legacy systems.
It was designed with consumer needs at its heart, so is very straight forward to use. The user simply tells the system their occupancy status - whether they are in, out, asleep or on holiday - and PassivEnergy looks after the rest, providing exactly the required amount of hot water and heat for that status. Early results have seen a 25 per cent reduction in household energy use.
“Saving up to a quarter on your energy bill is a significant saving and we’ve seen a huge consumer demand for PassivEnergy,” concluded Colin Calder. “It works because it fits so seamlessly with people’s lives and effectively manages their energy for them, valued qualities as people’s lives are so busy.”
“As the debate moves from smart metering to the smart grid, the energy industry needs to make sure consumers become more of a focus or the enormous global investment in smart energy technology could be wasted, as would appear to be the case with some of the smart metering roll-outs.”
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-- Content submitted by PassivSystems
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